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For CW, a New Plot: Improved Ratings

CW, the part-time television network that a year ago looked like much less than the sum of the two mini-networks from which it emerged, is offering a few indications this fall that it may have found a key to survival: high school kids in expensive clothes.

Thanks largely to the popularity that two teencentric shows, “Gossip Girl” and “90210,” have forged with a young female audience, CW Network seems to have developed both a brand identity and some promising ratings in the first two months of the television season.

And not a moment too soon. Last year, as CW executives contemplated week after week of bad numbers, both in revenues and ratings, they found themselves choking on incongruity. How could they have one of the most talked-about shows on television in “Gossip Girl” and almost no viewers to show for it?

Or as Leslie Moonves, chairman of CBS, one of the network’s two parent companies (the other is Warner Brothers Entertainment), said, “It seemed like I was hearing from more people personally who were fans of ‘Gossip Girl’ than seemed to be watching it, according to the ratings we were getting.”

If the issue was not quite life and death for CW, it qualified as life and near-death. In its second year, long past the euphoric announcement of the deal in which its partners, the former owners of the WB and UPN networks, had come together in 2006 with hopes of turning a merger into mutual profitability, CW was an unmitigated flop.

In a telephone interview, Mr. Moonves said: “I didn’t think putting the two networks together would necessarily mean that one plus one would equal three. But I may have expected two and a half.”

Instead CW was more like a seven-tenths. The network was losing millions of dollars; it was showing no signs of growth; and the talk in Hollywood was that its parent corporations might be close to pulling the plug. “We’re not a short-term company,” said Barry Meyer, the chairman of Warner Brothers. “But at some point you’d have to think we’d look at it realistically.”

As the public face of CW, Dawn Ostroff, its president of entertainment, was the executive facing most scrutiny when the network foundered last season. Rumors of her imminent ouster, including the name of her likely successor, were being passed around Hollywood talent agencies.

Mr. Moonves said that Ms. Ostroff was never on the verge of being let go, though he deflected the question when asked if any potential successors had been identified.

Photo

Gossip Girl, a hit from last season, has maintained its appeal.Credit
Giovanni Rufino/CW Network

Ms. Ostroff said she had not been overly worried, especially about the long-term success of CW. “It’s so important as an asset builder for both parent companies,” she said, citing the steady business previous WB and CW shows — like “Gilmore Girls” — continue to do in syndication.

Though Mr. Moonves said emphatically that “there was no intention to shut it down,” he conceded that “this was a very important fall for the CW.”

More specifically, it was a very important late summer. In a move that may prove to be the life preserver the network needed, CW started its season early, in the first week of September, to get a jump on the other networks. The results were positive.

“Gossip Girl,” with its season premiere on Sept. 1, began posting its best ratings ever; much to the network’s surprise, the show that follows it on Monday nights, “One Tree Hill,” bounced up significantly in its sixth season.

The next night, the premiere of the network’s biggest gamble, the revival of a previous era’s teenage favorite, “90210” (“Beverly Hills 90210” in its old incarnation), produced impressive numbers as well.

“Starting early was a big part of our strategy,” Ms. Ostroff said. “It allowed us to get out ahead of the other networks, and in a quiet time to get attention for our shows.”

“Gossip Girl” and “90210” all but cornered the market on attention this summer, with an array of magazine covers and television interviews. “It was a really smart move,” Mr. Meyer said. “We got traction.”

The traction is measurable. Thus far this season, CW is up 41 percent in total viewers on Mondays, and a whopping 143 percent among its most desired audience, women 18 to 34. On Tuesdays the network is also up 37 percent with those viewers.

The percentage increases in viewers are so big, of course, partly because they apply to a very low base. That 143 percent increase on Mondays represents only about an added 235,000 viewers.

Those are the only nights CW officials are discussing because of other strategic moves the network has made, including a radical revision of Friday night programming and farming out Sunday nights entirely to another company. Until this year CW had turned over its Fridays to professional wrestling, a proven audience-getter — though one not especially made up of teenage girls. And Sunday, another problem area, became someone else’s problem when CW sold the time on Sunday night to Media Rights Capital, an independent production company that calls itself a studio and wanted network territory to stake out for its own programming.

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The Media Rights lineup on Sunday met with instant rejection, so emphatically that Keith Samples, the head of the company’s television division, has been reported to be leaving the company.

At least the issue is no longer a worry for CW. Ms. Ostroff said that the outsourcing to Media Rights brought in some revenue while also cutting back on the number of programming hours CW would have to fill. (Two Media Rights shows, “Valentine” and “Easy Money,” have already gone on hiatus from production.)

As for wrestling, Ms. Ostroff acknowledged that “it was popular, and it was a very hard decision to give it up.”

“But,” she continued, “wrestling had not been beneficial in bringing the viewers we wanted into our schedule, and vice versa.”

Wrestling has moved on to the even smaller My Network TV, and CW has filled Friday night with its low-rated comedies, led by the widely praised “Everybody Loves Chris.”

At its height, the WB network had appealed to a young female audience with great success with shows like “Dawson’s Creek” and “Felicity.” Advertisers liked the niche approach — and they still do.

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The teenage drama 90210 has been a hit for CW.Credit
Michael Desmond/CW Network

“We’re definitely pleased with what they’ve done,” Mr. Maltby of the Mindshare firm said of CW. “They do seem to have caught some fire.”

Ms. Ostroff said that CW this season was moving closer to what the WB network was at its height: “a destination for young women.”

There could be risk in limiting the network to that audience, though. Steve Sternberg, the director of audience analysis for Magna Global, a media-buying company, noted in an e-mail message that “given that ABC, CBS and NBC have average median ages of 50 or approaching 50, and even Fox is over 40 these days, it’s curious that CW, with a median age around 33, is not going after both women and men.”

“Going almost exclusively after young women might be too narrow a focus,” he added.

Ms. Ostroff said the network planned to expand its appeal with some shows to attract more young men, like a proposed series, “The Graysons,” about the family of Robin before he joined up with Batman.

She cited a few other shows in development, including a spinoff of its long-running reality-show success, “America’s Next Top Model.”

But in another sign that the dangers have not yet been put in the network’s rear-view mirror, “Top Model” is showing a bit of wear this season. It is down 24 percent with those sought-after audiences of young women.

In addition, a new drama Ms. Ostroff introduced with big hopes this season, “Privileged,” has barely made a dent on public awareness, despite featuring plenty more young people in expensive clothes.

Still, CW executives cited other positive indicators. Mr. Moonves pointed to strong international sales for “Gossip Girl” and “90210,” and Mr. Meyer spoke of how impressively some of the series sell as DVDs.

Does that mean a complete rebound — as in making a profit — is possible this season? Mr. Moonves said maybe; Mr. Meyer said not likely.

But, Mr. Meyer added, “I think we have really turned the corner. I think we can all feel it turning the corner.”